We're booked for May and June to tour the Iberian Peninsula. A handful of experienced travelers/friends suggested either of these pilgrimage walks of about 500 miles as a life experience. In fact, the suggestion has arisen so frequently of late that I'm almost taking it as a sign.
We're athletic -- having climbed Half Dome in Yosemite, run half-marathons, and biked centuries and metric doubles. So the physical commitment isn't intimidating. But the time it will take -- about 30 days, depending on how fast we want to go and how many down days we want to sit -- is causing me to go slowly on committing to do such a walk. Communal dinners with pilgrims appeal to us simply for the benefit of meeting travelers from all over. I'm cool on hostals or hostels, and am willing to spend for privacy and occassionally boujie accommodations. And while these walks aren't days of solitude, they are certainly more along the lines of the road less traveled. Seeing a country by walking across it seems to be tugging on my backpacking younger days of decades back.
With all of that said, we have the time so if not now, when? And we'd still have some time to see the highlights of Portgual and Spain.
If you have experienced either or (even better) both walks what are your thoughts? Would you do the walk again? One of our friends who did Camino Frances last year (and he isn't a particualrly effusive person) was dazzled by and gushed about his experience. He plans to go back to Spain this coming year for another walk...
Thoughts? Suggestions? Thanks in advance...